LESSON 4: SEO TOOLS AND

THE IMPACT OF AI ON SEO

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FREE SEO TOOLS

Free Google tools

Google offers several free tools that greatly help your SEO strategy:

Google Search Console: This tool provides detailed reports about your website’s visibility on Google.
It helps to identify issues with your site, provides insights into how Google crawls and indexes your
pages, shows search queries that drive traffic to your site, and provides additional valuable
information.
Google Analytics: This is a comprehensive analytics tool that can help you understand how people
use your website. It provides information about the number of visitors, their behavior, the duration of
their stay, how engaged they are, and so on.
Google Keyword Planner: Part of Google Ads, this tool can help you discover new keywords and get
search volumes to see how they might perform. Keep in mind, if you’re not a Google Ads customer,
the search volumes given are broad ranges, not precise. However, the Keywords Everywhere tool, a
Chrome extension, can provide more accurate search volumes for a reasonable fee.
Google Trends: This tool allows you to see the latest trends, data, and visualizations from Google. It
can be a useful tool for identifying trending topics or terms related to your industry. Even though it
doesn’t give specific keyword search volumes, you can compare keywords to see which one is more
popular. This can be particularly handy if you only have access to broad search volume ranges from
the Keyword Planner.
Google PageSpeed Insights: This tool evaluates the performance of your web pages and provides
suggestions on how to improve them. It’s particularly useful for optimizing page speed and Core Web
Vitals.
Google My Business: A free tool that allows businesses to manage their online presence across
Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can help
customers find your business and particularly useful for local businesses.

Ahrefs tools

While there are hundreds of other free SEO tools, each with their own merits, we’re going to focus on five
from Ahrefs.

Webmaster Tools

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free tool that offers insights into your website’s performance. It provides
backlink data, keyword rankings, and technical SEO health checks. Using it, you can identify and address SEO
problems and explore opportunities to boost your site’s organic search performance.

Pro tip: This free SEO audit tool operates only with sites verified through Google Search Console. So, it likely
won’t be useful for researching the competition, but it’s excellent for identifying potential issues on your site
or revealing opportunities, such as trending keywords.

Free Keyword Generator

Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator is a tool for finding SEO keywords. It suggests keywords, estimates their
search volume, and shows their competition level. The tool also provides related queries and questions for
content inspiration. It’s tailored for specific country results.

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The free version of this tool offers a more limited and literal interpretation of your input compared to the paid
version (so less keyword ideas). While it requires additional legwork for generating ideas, it provides valuable
search volumes for your keywords.

Additionally, while the free version of Google Keyword Planner is excellent for generating keyword ideas, it’s
not so accurate at providing search volumes. Therefore, when used together with Ahrefs free Keyword
Generator, they form an effective, cost-free solution for keyword research and analysis.

Pro tip: Include plural and singular searches for a keyword separately.

Website Traffic Checker

Ahrefs’ Website Traffic Checker estimates a site’s monthly organic traffic. It lists top keywords attracting
visitors, aiding competitor analysis, SEO strategy understanding, and discovering new keyword opportunities.

To quickly locate pages on a competitor’s website, consider using Google’s site command.

Pro tip: This tool reveals the top five keywords for a specific URL, not just for a domain. So, don’t limit yourself
to the homepage of a rival’s site. Try adding specific pages from their site to get more than five results.

Free Backlink Checker

Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker provides a quick glance at a site’s backlink profile. It shows the top 100 backlinks,
along with the website’s Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR). Although limited, it’s useful for spot checks
and swift analyses.

Pro tip: Compare your homepage’s overall backlink performance, including Domain Rating, Backlinks, and
Linking Websites, with your competitors’ homepages. This comparison will give you a snapshot of how your
site measures up from an off-page SEO perspective.

Free Rank Checker

Ahrefs’ Free Rank Checker will reveal where your website ranks on Google for a specific keyword and from a
range of countries.

Pro tip: While researching keywords, check your website’s current ranking for each keyword. If you’re already
on the first page or close to it, so within the top ten results, this suggests careful on-page optimization on your
website could quickly bring significant improvements.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TOOLS FOR SEO

Use cases

ChatGPT, unveiled in late 2022, has caught the public's attention. Its potential to simplify work, particularly in
digital marketing, is widely popular. This artificial intelligence (AI) tool stands out by delivering in-depth data,
crafting engaging content which you can create from your keyword research, and providing innovative
solutions to challenging SEO problems. For instance, it can help uncover the reasons behind a drop in organic
traffic after a website migration.

The impact of ChatGPT is clear in Bing's decision to embed it into its search platform. Meanwhile, Google has
launched its own AI Chatbot, Gemini, highlighting the growing trend and rivalry in AI-based digital solutions.

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ChatGPT and Bing

Here are some key points about ChatGPT, and how it has been incorporated into Bing:

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot created by OpenAI.

GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer.
It uses machine learning to produce (or generate) human-like text.
The tool offers valuable insights, creates content, and gives suggestions.
It has multiple applications. For example, it can assist digital marketers in enhancing their copywriting
skills.
Bing has incorporated ChatGPT into its search results for a more engaging and informative user
experience.

Google Gemini

Here are some key points about Google’s Geminichatbot.

Gemini, like ChatGPT, employs advanced AI technology for a range of applications.

Many users find Gemini less useful than ChatGPT, leading to a broader userbase for ChatGPT. This
might be because Google tends to be more cautious with information.

Generative AI

Bing and Google have started integrating AI into search engine results pages. Google refers to this as ‘Search
Generative Experience’, a term that generally encompasses generative AI.

For now, generative AI is still experimental in both Google and Bing. Depending on its acceptance, it could
become much more prevalent, especially for information-focused searches.

In summary, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini can certainly save you time, whether it’s brainstorming ideas
or proofreading your copy. While they can be really useful on many digital marketing tasks, generative AI is
poised to create additional competition in the SERPs, in addition to the regular SEO results.

PAID SEO TOOLS

Do you need paid SEO tools?

With so many excellent free tools available, do you really need paid SEO software?

When it comes to paid SEO software, the short answer is that it’s not necessary to make good progress in SEO.
If budget is a concern, you could opt to subscribe to a premium tool for just one month, to carry out tasks
such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and competitor research.

What is the best all in one SEO tools? There are several paid tools that will help you with your SEO project,
including keyword research tools, link building tools, website audit tools, and rank tracking tools. It’s
important to understand which tools are most relevant to your website’s needs.

Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush

Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush are the three most common all-in-one premium SEO tool providers. Historically,
Moz has been aimed more towards the beginner-intermediate market, while Ahrefs and SEMrush are

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targeted towards the intermediate or advanced market. Ahrefs is more focused on SEO, while SEMrush has a
broader range of features to help with other marketing activities.

Here are some of key features that are included in all three tools:

Keyword tracking: You enter a list of keywords that you would like your site to rank for and they will
be tracked over time, so you can see ranking improvements or drops.
Technical audit: The tools crawl your website and report technical issues that might make it harder
for search engines to find or understand the content on your website properly.
Keyword research: You can enter a keyword and get ideas around similar-meaning keywords that you
may wish to target and rank for.
Competitor research: The tools report which keywords a competitor ranks for and what backlinks
they have.

Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush offer some freemium features. For example, you can get a limited number of
backlinks or keywords reported for a website for free. Ahrefs is very generous with the free features in its
Webmaster Tools offering.

Typically, these tools all can crawl sites very quickly and pinpoint site errors that need to be fixed. Ahrefs and
SEMrush are particularly useful because, once they crawl a site, they award sites an overall score that will act
as an initial benchmark. They also outline the errors and warn of potential SEO weaknesses. As you go through
and carry out the fixes that these tools highlight, the overall site scores improve.

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is another premium tool, but rather than an all-in-one SEO tool that runs in the cloud, it’s
specifically for technical SEO and runs as software on your computer. Its SEO spider tool will crawl 500 URLs
for free and the paid version removes limits in addition to its other advanced features.

Cost of SEO

A common concern from marketers and business owners is the perceived high cost of SEO. Many believe that
premium tools, which can exceed $100 per month, are essential for achieving successful SEO results.

However, the reality is that there’s an array of free tools, such as those provided by Google and Ahrefs, which
are more than sufficient for those starting out in SEO and even for making significant SEO progress.

These tools offer invaluable data that can be used for keyword research, backlink checking, site auditing, and
so forth. So, rather than seeing cost as a barrier, it’s useful to understand how to best leverage these free
resources effectively first.

Moreover, it’s important to remember that most premium tools offer flexible plans. They don’t tie you down
to an annual subscription, which means you can dip in and out, purchasing a month’s access here and there as
and when you need more extensive data or features.

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NOTES

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LESSON 5: MEASURING SEO
PERFORMANCE

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KEY SEO METRICS

When it comes to SEO, there are three key areas that you need to constantly measure:

Keyword rankings: Once you’ve researched and decided on a list of target keywords for your pages,
you’ll want to track their performance in key search engines, such as Google and Bing. Monitoring
where these keywords rank can provide crucial insights into your SEO effectiveness.
Organic traffic: One of the main goals of SEO is to increase the number of visitors to your site via the
search engine’s ‘free’ results. This is often referred to as ‘organic traffic’. Understanding how many
visitors you’re attracting organically helps measure the success of your SEO strategies.
Conversions: Simply put, you need to know how many organic visitors turn into leads and sales.
Tracking these conversions is crucial for understanding the true value of your SEO efforts.

Why track keyword rankings?

Why is tracking keyword rankings so important?

In the constantly changing field of SEO, some experts are now suggesting that monitoring keywords may not
be essential. Instead, they argue that focusing on tracking organic traffic and conversions is sufficient. This
shift might be attributed to Google now focusing less on individual keywords and more on topic levels that
meet the same search intent.

Despite this trend, monitoring keywords is still valuable, particularly in the early stages of your SEO journey.
Here’s why:

Progress indicators: Keyword rankings act as progress indicators. During the initial stages of SEO,
obtaining a first-page ranking on Google may be challenging. Organic traffic or conversions may be
minimal. However, keyword rankings can serve as the first signs of success. Seeing your position
improve from page five to three, for instance, is both motivating and signals you’re on the right track!
On-page optimization validation: Changes to your page elements, such as title tags, headings, or
body text, should ideally lead to improved keyword rankings. If this happens, it means your on-page
optimization strategies are effective and should be continued.
Diagnosis of organic traffic drops: Organic traffic can sometimes drop due to issues with certain
keywords. Regular keyword tracking can quickly identify these problems, allowing you to resolve
them faster.

In short, better keywords ranking typically leads to a rise in traffic and conversions!

Why track organic traffic?

Why is important to track organic traffic?

In the world of SEO, tracking organic traffic is crucial! It’s like monitoring footfall in a physical store – without
customers visiting your shop (or, in this case, your website), sales will inevitably fall short.

Here are some reasons why measuring organic traffic is so important:

Historical comparison: Organic traffic data allows you to compare current performance against past
results, be it the previous month or a year-on-year period. By doing so, you can verify if your SEO

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 efforts are driving progress. Also, where relevant, it can help build a business case to invest more in
SEO.
Content performance analysis: Dividing your website into sections, such as blog content or product
collections, enables you to better compare the performance of different content types. You can
identify which parts of your site attract the most traffic, informing whether to capitalize on strong
areas or work on weak ones.
Identifying opportunities: Organic traffic data can highlight potential opportunities. For instance, if a
blog post unexpectedly attracts significant traffic, it could indicate a trending topic that you could
further exploit.

Why track conversions?

Next, let’s consider conversions. Why is tracking conversions important?

Conversions are the ultimate objective of most digital marketing strategies! They play a key role in driving
business growth.

Here’s why tracking conversions is paramount:

Measure the micro and macro: Conversion tracking isn’t limited to sales (macro) alone. It can also
cover ‘micro-conversions’ such as PDF downloads, contact inquiries, or newsletter sign ups. Even if
you don’t run an ecommerce site, tracking these micro-conversions can offer valuable insights at a
broader level of success.
ROI calculation: Sales conversions are the heart of ROI (return on investment) calculation. By tracking
conversions, you can evaluate the profitability of your SEO efforts and compare it against other
marketing channels. This process is key for budget allocation and justifying SEO investments to
stakeholders.
Goal setting and benchmarking: Conversion tracking is vital for setting tangible objectives and
evaluating performance against those benchmarks. By monitoring conversion rates, you can set
realistic targets and work towards improving them. It gives a tangible metric to strive for and
measures the success of your SEO strategies over time.

SEO MEASUREMENT

How to measure SEO by tracking keywords

When it comes to monitoring keyword rankings, you have two options:

Passive tracking
Proactive tracking

Passive keyword tracking

Passive tracking, which relies on tools such as Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. It provides
insights into your keyword rankings free of charge, and much of the heavy lifting is done for you.

In the Performance section of the Search Console, for example, you’ll find a list of queries or keywords that
generate clicks and impressions for your site. To see your ranking position, make sure to tick the Average
position box. This will show a column revealing where your keywords rank.

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Bear in mind that the position displayed is a global ranking. For SEO purposes, it’s typically best to focus on
the primary country where you want to rank. To hone the ranking positions down to a specific country, click
New, then select Country, and pick the desired country, such as the United States.

However, this approach has a few drawbacks. First, you can’t control the specific keywords that Google
reports. Some keywords may be relevant, while others may not be. Moreover, not all of your targeted
keywords may be included in the reported data. Plus, Search Console only provides data for the past 16
months, which limits your ability to compare rankings over a more extended time period.

Proactive keyword tracking

Proactive keyword tracking, on the other hand, lets you track specific keywords. It typically comes at a cost
and requires a subscription. However, the benefit is that it allows you to fully control the keywords you want
to track, aligning them with your complete SEO keyword list.

Proactive keyword tracking comes with several additional benefits:

Track keywords on demand or at scheduled times during the day or week.

Monitor keywords over the long term, enabling you to analyze trends for as long as you subscribe to
the tool.
Compare your keyword rankings to those of your competitors, so you can see whether you’re
catching up or they’re pulling away.

Paid keyword tracking tools

If you’re considering paid keyword tracking tools, you have several options.

If you already have an all-in-one SEO tool such as SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, or SE Ranking, you’re
already set!
If your budget doesn’t stretch to an all-in-one SEO tool, you might prefer a specialist keyword ranking
tool (which tends to be cheaper than all-in-one SEO tools), such as RankTrackr, Wincher, or
AccuRanker.
Alternatively, you could use [Link] to check 10 free keywords per day. However, while
it’s free, it’s not always as reliable.

While keywords are typically tracked daily, it’s not always wise to fall into the habit of reviewing them daily
yourself. Occasionally, you might see sudden spikes or drops that last for a day or two. A more balanced
approach would be to review your keyword performance weekly or monthly instead.

How to measure SEO by tracking organic traffic

To track organic traffic, you’ll need a web analytics program. Usually, this means deciding which one to use
first, and then adding its JavaScript tracking code into the source code of your web pages.

The most commonly used web analytics software, which is also free, is Google Analytics, often referred to as
GA. The current version is GA4.

Here are the steps to find your organic traffic:

1. Log in to Google Analytics: Open GA4 for the property you wish to monitor.
2. Navigate to the ‘Reports’ section: In the interface, click on Reports in the left-hand menu.

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 3. Click the Traffic Acquisition sub-menu.

From there, you’ll be able to see totals for ‘Organic Search’, which is synonymous with organic traffic,
meaning the ‘free’ traffic coming from search engines. You’ll be able to compare it to other traffic sources and
often you’ll find it’s the top contributor of traffic.

Once you’ve linked Search Console to GA4, you can also click on the Acquisition Overview and navigate to the
Google Organic Search reports in GA4. These are displayed as widgets in the Overview section and give you
some basic metrics from the search console in the GA4 interface.

You’ll see the total number of organic search users and sessions for the time period selected. The time period
typically defaults to the last 28 days, and you can see this in the top right of the window.

When tracking organic traffic, it’s common to review it on a monthly or quarterly basis. Using the date picker,
it’s also straightforward to compare the monthly or quarterly period against the preceding period or year-on-
year.

Naturally, over time, you’ll be aiming for your organic traffic to grow and meet or exceed your organic traffic
goals.

How to measure SEO by tracking conversions

When it comes to tracking conversions, you can also use Google Analytics or your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce,
and so on) if it provides channel data.

First, you need to decide what constitutes a conversion. Here’s Google’s a commonly used definition of a
conversion:

A conversion is any user action that’s valuable to your business; for example, a user purchasing from your store,
filling out a lead form or subscribing to your newsletter are examples of common conversions.

If you run an ecommerce website, you’ll probably want to track sales, so you’ll need to add ecommerce events
to your website or app. Depending on your content management system and/or shopping cart platform, this
can be a bit more complicated to set up than regular Google Analytics tracking and is sometimes done through
Google Tag Manager.

It’s also good practice, whether you’re an ecommerce site or not, to track micro-events, such as newsletter
sign-ups, website enquiries, and PDF downloads. These can all be done by converting events into conversions.
An increase in micro-conversions often correlates with an increase in sales, which are typically your macro-
conversions.

Depending on your business, you might want to monitor sales on a weekly or monthly basis.

Measuring SEO in practice

Let’s now look at an example of measuring SEO in practice.

As an SEO consultant, I recently worked with a major ecommerce client who noticed a sizable 25% dip in its
organic traffic in the second quarter. Fortunately, because it was diligent in routinely checking its organic
traffic data through Google Analytics and Google Search Console, it picked up on this drop quickly.

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In response to the detected decline, I was called in to conduct an in-depth SEO audit to identify the root cause.
Together with the client's team, we completed a thorough review process, systematically examining the
various factors that could potentially impact organic traffic.

The process led us to the Page Indexing Report in Google Search Console. Interestingly, we noticed a
substantial decrease in indexed pages that corresponded with the timeline of the drop in traffic.

As we dug deeper, we discovered a significant number of sub-category pages had been accidentally deleted.
Armed with this insight from the audit, we quickly restored the deleted sub-category pages, ensuring the
content and URLs remained the same.

Over a few weeks, as the restored pages were re-indexed and started ranking again, the site gradually
recovered in its organic traffic. Eventually, we were able to regain the lost ground and return to the prior
traffic levels.

This scenario underscores the importance of regular monitoring of key SEO metrics and acting promptly when
drops are noticed.

Common engagement metrics in GA4 include:

Events
Views
Users
View per user
Average engagement time
Engagement rate

While you’ll typically import Google Ads data into Google Analytics, as previously you should also import
Google Analytics conversions and e-commerce data directly into Google Ads to align your goal tracking
between interfaces.

In Google Analytics, you can create advanced audience segments to be shared with Google Ads and YouTube in
the audience section of the admin area.

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